Are You a Lonely Entrepreneur? 5 Solutions to a Healthy Life/Work Balance!

Starting your own tech company can be one of the greatest blessings. You have the ability to work remotely, set your own schedule, and create your own idea; and the threshold from concept to completion of your idea is so much faster in most cases than creating a physical product, or physical storefront. The benefits are endless and the payoff can be huge if you do it right. So why aren’t there more start ups? Why aren’t you going for it?

For one, your chances are much greater that you will fail than make it. It takes a tremendous amount of perseverance and wherewithal to see your idea through to profitability. Due to the nature of this business, most tech people, particularly at the beginning, spend most of their waking hours in front of a computer with little to no social life. This is particularly true in the first year of your startup, especially if you are working from a home office.

The point I am making is that it can be quite lonely starting your own tech company. For some people that are more introverted, this type of setup is ideal. For the extroverted, the isolation can eat away at the soul. You may also notice that your old friends start to disappear, possibly because of the lack of nurturing it takes to create a successful startup. It just gets really tough to balance it all.

Control Your Schedule

You may also notice when starting your own business, especially out of your home, that your friends and family may have this idea that you are home, so you must be able to hangout and visit whenever they want. This is a huge misnomer and you must take control of your schedule before your best friend or family member shows up to your front door in the middle of the day while you are working. So how do you take control of your schedule and keep your friends and family near? Simply pick up the phone, call them, and share with them what you are doing and explain to them what your average day looks like.

It’s easy to get caught up in work, especially at the beginning. Take a break and be sure that you put in the effort to maintain your connections with valuable friends and family. There will be tons of highs and lows during your journey as an entrepreneur, so you will need friends and family around to help balance you and listen to your struggle. Let’s discuss 5 ways we can create a better life/work balance.

5 Steps to Creating a Healthy Life/Work Balance

1. Meetups

Meetups are a great way to meet like-minded individuals. There are meetups happening almost daily, particularly in major metro areas. If you don’t see a meet up you like, start one yourself here.

2. Sports

If you like to be physical, then get yourself in the gym or take up a team sport to meet others, like volleyball, basketball, soccer, and even yoga.

3. Conferences

SXSW in Austin is an amazing place to go and meet like-minded entrepreneurs from all over the place. This particular conference is the marriage of tech, film, and music all in one place. It’s a great experience and is definitely worth going if you have the budget to do so.

4. Get Co-Founders

This is easier said than done. Being a solo entrepreneur is particularly trying, so consider partnering with other people to create a synergy and a team environment to help balance each other and create a more social atmosphere.

5. Rent a Co-working Space with other Entrepreneurs

This is a great one if you need to get out of the house and change work environments. For as little $50 a week you can get your own desk in a communal area with other entrepreneurs. This is a great way to work with like-minded people and it may even help increase productivity by having the synergy of others and their energy in your space. You can learn more about communal space here.

There is no question that the old saying, “It’s lonely at the top”, is true in many respects but it doesn’t have to be. You can still build a hugely successful company and have friends to share it with but it will take lots of effort, particularly at the beginning. Stay committed to managing your time and watch your productivity increase and have fun at the same time.

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Co-Founder and tech entrepreneur. Anthony's passion and experience for retail and tech has inspired him to develop insightful contributions in retail and help develop our technology to take advantage of the ever evolving changes in the retail industry.
Anthony has first hand experience with SEO, SMM, SEM, Web Development, Mobile strategy and growth.

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